San Francisco vs San Diego?

[pinktraceb]

I still haven't booked anything now I've decided to DIY it so I'm rethinking our itinerary.

My original plan was to fly to San Fran and then travel down via Monterey, San Luis & Santa Barbara to LA & Anaheim.

My concern is that we are going to be spending a lot of time travelling! We did a Vancouver & Rockies road trip last year, and although it was fabulous, the travelling did get a bit tiresome!

So instead of San Fran I thought how about we fly in and out of LA, do LA, Anaheim and then also San Diego. Less time spent travelling in the car then. I've heard great things about San Diego.

I was also wondering about doing a loop - so drive to San Diego along the coast and then back up inland. Has anyone done this and is it worth it? Are there any nice stop off points that are worth a visit?

We are 2 adults and 2 boys (17 & 14)

TIA

[Guest]

Hi

We did a loop in 2018 we did have 3 weeks though.
Flew in to San Francisco for 3 nights then
Monterey 2 nights
Avila Beach 1 night
Santa Barbara 2 nights
Hilton Universal LA 2 nights
SAN Diego 4 nights
La Quinta (near Palm Springs) 2 nights
Lone Pine 2 nights
Yosemite 2 nights
Santa Cruz 1 night
Flew back from San Francisco

We absolutely loved it and didn’t feel we were travelling too much. We took our time and stopped at places of interest along the way so it was a real part of the holiday rather than just a journey.

[Bozza]

This was our trip in 2018, having flown both into and out of San Francisco...

1 night Palo Alto (close to SF and allowed us to visit both Google and Apple the next day)
2 nights Monterey
1 night Solvang (stop on the way down PCH, but well worth a visit in its own right)
5 nights LA (Glendale - was a good base for many things)
4 nights Disneyland (the DL Hotel)
2 nights Hermosa Beach
(flew back to SF)
4 nights SF

...the trip down from SF to LA didn't feel like too much at all.

I'll add that we quite often do things on the fly though, so when we went out, all we knew we were going to do was drop our car off at Disneyland, with the likely expectation that we'd pick another one up to drive back to SF. However, we decided not to do that and booked last-minute flights back to SF to save time and the drive, which I think was a good decision, despite the cost.

If you were flying into SF and out of LA, I think you'd be fine.

[cornishfrogboy]

Building on our first trip (trip report in signature) and the experience as a whole... both!.. and here is how. (I note your family is identical pretty much to mine.

San Francisco is a must see with Alcatraz, the Golden gate, Cable cars, Pier 39, Golden Gate Park, Sausalito, Muir Woods etc etc etc. A fab city.

Monterey is awesome, Whale trips, aquarium, general ambience etc. It is rather special.

The PCH between Monterey and San Luis Obispo is the jewel in the crown with Pebble Beach, Carmel, Big sur with Partington, Pfeiffer Park, Bixby Bridge, San Simeon, Hearst Castle etc. In our opinion, it peters out in enjoyment once you get below SL Obispo (other than Solvang.

San Diego is quite simply the fines USA City that I have ever visited. My trip report will give you an idea of why. I would love to live there and I don’t like Cities.

This is the controversial bit. I find LA a total and utter toilet . It is huge, ugly and generally unappealing. 6 flags was ok. Disney was for me, disappointing. Reagan Library was good. A night on the Queen Mary at Long Beach was good also. Walk of fame was filthy, Beverley hills, pretentious (I am never in awe of people who pretend that they are somebody that they are not)... I will hopefully never return.

As a first visit to the area (and with the hindsight of experience), I would visit SFO and pick up a car hire as I left.
I would do all of the above as I worked down to San Luis Obispo and stay at the Madonna Inn.
I would hand my hire car in at San Luis Obispo Airport and fly from there to San Diego. (Won’t be more than £85pp).
I would then either..
a) Uber to my accommodation and subsequent days in San Diego before flying out of San Diego to get home .
b) Pick up a hire car and use it before leaving San Diego and spending a day driving up to a preposition night on the Queen Mary at Long Beach (taking in Scripps, Kayaking, Legoland for free if you have a Gosandiego card). On my last day, I would then drive across the shore side of LA to Santa Monica, See the Pier, do the 6 hour LA/Hollywood tour as described in the trip report and then catch the evening plane home out of nearby LAX Airport.

Hope it helps!

[LLKJDisney]

Our first trip to Cali we spent a week in anaheim and a week in San Diego. We did all Disney, universal, Santa Monica, Knotts Berry and then legoland, seaworld, SD Zoo and Safari Park the holiday was amazing.

in 2018 we went SF, Yosemite, missed out LA and went back to San Diego as we loved the city so much, the drive down the PCH from SF to San Diego is Amazing and not to be missed, we had a few nights stop along the way and it was incredible.

We are going back this year and driving SF down to Anaheim but not doing SD this time, the PCH is an amazing journey and i think it would be sad to miss it but go all the way to SD and spend some time in this amazing city - its not to be missed

Have fun planning xx

[jdouds]

Hi how long is your trip going to be as this would affect advice given. so much to see and some great advice already.

[jdouds]

Hi for some basics.
San Francisco to Monterey 1.5-2 hours drive
Monterey to san Luis Obispo 2.5
S l to Santa Barbara 1.5
Off course there is lots to see on route with so many photo opportunities .
Bixby bridge, Hearst castle, elephant seals at san simeon and a view round every corner.
Would suggest you try not to do any single night stops, or perhaps 1 at San Luis Obispo as this lets you get a bit more out of where you have stopped.
Cant recommend San Fran and Monterey enough, especially whale watching from Monterey one of the best things we have ever done.

[Olympiad]

Some good advice already on SF related trips but per your question on a loop starting and finishing in LA then yes that’s perfectly doable and plenty of things to do and places to stay.

Between LA and San Diego, apart from Anaheim/Disney, you have all the beach resorts of Orange County, all good places to see/stay - Newport, Huntington, Laguna are the main ones but also some quieter places like San Clemente. Whale watching is an option from here.

From San Diego you can travel over to Palm Springs from where you can also visit places like Joshua Tree National Park.

From Palm Springs it’s only a couple of hours back into LA and you could finish off at multiple places in LA or it’s beach cities or maybe get round as far as Santa Barbera.

[scooby99]

We visited San Diego last year, had 3 nights there and then did a mini looped road trip.

We left SD and travelled to Lake Cuyamaca and had breakfast on a terrace overlooking the lake & forest, we then travelled onto Julian, an old Wild West mining town up in the mountains where we had a stroll around the main street to see the original storefronts from the days of the Gold Rush; nice places to eat there too.
We then travelled down into the Anza-Borrego Desert Park to the desert valley floor to stay overnight in Borrego Springs.
That journey took us from 8am-2pm but we had a few stops and breakfast, lunch etc. If you drove straight from SD to Borrego Springs, it would take around 1.5-2 hours.
We left SD in 75 degree heat, as we progressed up the mountains/forests the temps gradually dropped to 50 degrees in Julian; 30 minutes out of Julian and in the desert it was 95 degrees!

Borrego Springs in the middle of the desert was stunningly beautiful; we also saw some of the metal sculptures dotted all over the area; 130 of them in the middle of the desert here and there; dinosaurs, dragons, sheep, eagles, jeeps, horses etc; all huge & very other worldly! Google them!

The next morning we left Borrego Springs and out on way out whilst travelling up & out of the valley floor, we got some stunning views of the desert & mountains surrounding it.
We then travelled via 'wine country' (very green & lush in comparison to the desert we'd just left) to Temecula; lots of vineyards you can pop into if that appeals!
A break in Temecula and then onwards to San Clemente for 2 nights; San Clemente is a lovely beach town and not as crowded as the likes of Huntingdon/Laguna etc.
Whilst staying in San Clemente, we drove out to visit one of the historic Missions; established by the Spanish missionaries in the 1500's/1600's; they're now all protected historic sites. We visited Mission San Juan Capistrano which is just beautiful & calming; the old town by the railway is so cute & quaint too but here are quite a few Missions all over the length & breadth of California.
Our last morning, we drove back to SD for our flight home.

We loved this mini-trip; 3 days gave us city, mountains, forests, lakes, desert, green lush wine country, beaches & seascapes within a relatively small area!

We loved it so much we're travelling back to San Diego and the surrounding area again this Easter!